


Walk in the Light

by inarikins



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: D2 spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 03:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12072321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inarikins/pseuds/inarikins
Summary: It's easy to forget why Guardians do what they do, but when the Hunter walks the City, she remembers. In the aftermath of the Red Legion's attack, the people rebuild, and lost Ghosts and their Guardians come home.





	Walk in the Light

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something that's been stewing for a few days.

Even without the Light, without their Ghosts to help and protect them, the Guardians had done what they could to get civilians out of the City when the Red Legion had borne down on it. 

Which was why, despite all the destruction, the buildings still lying rubbled across the wide streets, there were people there, working and laughing, vendors selling food outside the place where their business used to be. 

For the Hunter, who rarely came to the City before then, who had never felt drawn to crowds and noise, it was astounding. She had been restored her light by the Shard of the Traveler, had made her way through these very streets as part of the team to defeat Ghaul and destroy the Almighty, but they had been crawling with Cabal then, and had been dark and stinking of death and blood and smoke and artillery. 

Ghost is navigating her through the streets, to a place that had been advertised in the Tower, a place for Guardians and the City’s residents to mingle - a bar that had survived the onslaught of the Cabal by simply being too small to notice. 

But as she goes - and she’s armed to the teeth, and wearing her helmet, her cloak’s hood up - the people turn to look at her. More than a few call out, they wave, and she’s brought up short when a child runs to her. 

“Are you a Guardian?” She asks. She’s tiny, so tiny, with dark hair and dark skin and a mouth of bright teeth. 

The Hunter hesitates. She’s not used to children. Maybe, once upon a time, before her first death and undeath, she’d been a mother, or an aunt, but she doesn’t remember that time if it existed. 

Finally, she nods. 

The child reaches her hand into one of the pockets of her dress and pulls out-- it’s a Ghost. The dead shell of one. It’s scorched and there’s dried blood across the lens, and she immediately crouches. 

“Can you take this?” the girl asks. 

The Hunter nods again, then reaches up to push down her hood and pull off her helmet, breaking the seal between helmet and chestpiece. The scents of the City flood in - flowers, and food, and  _ energy _ \- but the Hunter only has eyes for the child and the Ghost she’s holding out with both hands. “I would be glad to take it home,” she said, holding out her own hands. 

With reverence, the girl carefully deposited the shell into the Hunter’s hands, brushing against the warm, smooth palm of her glove. 

The Hunter brings the shell up to her chest protectively. It’s cool and lifeless, all the Light and life gone out of it. Where its Guardian laid, who knew, but she was glad this child had thought to give it to a Guardian, to allow it to be laid back to rest. 

She nuzzled the shell, pressed her lips to it, then carefully cleaned the lens. She wiped away the dirt and scorch as best she could. The Vanguard could identify the Ghost, identify which Guardian it had shepherded, and add another name to the list of those lost. 

“Ghost,” she said quietly, and her own appeared over her shoulder. It shifted, its parts opening and closing, obviously just as grief-stricken at the sight as she was. They had seen too many dead Guardians, too many dead Ghosts, and it had yet to get any easier. “Will you please keep this safe?” 

“Of course,” he said, and transmatted the shell back to the Tower, back  _ home _ . 

She smiled at the girl, who was staring at Ghost with wide eyes. He stared back, shifting and floating this way and that. Glad to know he was just as awkward with children as she was. “Thank you,” she told the girl earnestly. “We lost many good Guardians and people, but you just brought another one home.” She bowed her head. 

The people of the City were the reason why there were Guardians. The Traveler had created Ghosts to protect the people. The Ghosts spent months or years searching, to find the perfect Guardian. Guardians protected the City, the Traveler, the Light itself against attack. 

And she would never let herself forget that again. 

It was true, she was terrible with children, but when the girl flung herself forward into her arms, wrapped those little hands around her neck and clung to her, well… This was what it was all about, right? 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr @notsoshem !


End file.
